Rare parasites found in the NIOZ fyke

Publication date: Friday 12 June 2020

On the Friday morning 12th June, Dennis Mosk and Maureen Sikkema found a thick-lipped mullet in the NIOZ fyke with a large parasite attached to it’s anal fin. They regularly find parasites on fish from the NIOZ fyke, but this type of parasite is not so common.

In this case we found a parasitic isopod, a large female with a length of 25mm. Probably this is the species Nerocila orbignyi, but species from the Nerocila genus are very similar in appearance and thus difficult to identify. The parasite is preserved for further analysis.

Nerocila orbignyi is a species of parasite that has been found on different species of fish.

thick-lipped mullet with a large parasite attached to it’s anal fin. Photo: Dennis Mosk

The parasite is probably a Nerocila orbignyi. Photo: Dennis Mosk

A few weeks back we found another remarkable parasite on a sprat that was caught in the NIOZ fyke. This time it was a parasitic copepod called Lernaeenicus sprattae. These parasites are commonly found on the eyes of sprat, but in this case the parasite burrowed into the spine of the sprat.

Lernaeenicus sprattae is a species of parasite that is only found on sprat.